The Best Tool To Improve Your Sleep
Hi,
I would love to share with you some recommendations and a great FREE tool to use. This continues on from my previous post titled:
A Power Of A Good Bedtime Routine
Here is an excerpt with some of the KEY points from the previous article:
- Turning off electrical items an hour before bed, or at least use blue light blocking apps or glasses for your screens. So many people are overstimulated, and this is also something I've witnessed with children.
- In addition, turn off the internet and ensure mobiles are on flight mode (your alarm will still work). Or better still, turn it off! Another option is to use an old-fashioned alarm clock and keep your mobile in a different room completely.
- If your mobile isn't off, any notifications coming through WILL disturb your sleep. In addition, avoid checking your phone during the night.
In today’s post, I would like to address the first bullet point. Most of us are already aware that excessive use of computers, smartphones, and tablets can lead to poor quality sleep. This is because our brains are overstimulated and the blue light affects how we sleep.
The amount and the quality of our sleep is vital to how we perform the next day. And it is something everybody wishes they had more of! In my career, I have worked with many people with sleep problems, including sleep deprivation and insomnia, and I've seen how this has affected nearly every area of their lives.
The recommend amount of sleep is between 5-9 hours per night. However, it is not just the amount of sleep, but the quality that is important.
Many studies have shown that adults today have far greater issues with sleep than in the past. Experts believe this is due to the artificial light being emitted by our screens.
Artificial lighting is not beneficial for our circadian rhythms (more about this on my first post here). And the LED lights in screens are even worse! This is because LED lights produce a colour that's far bluer than fluorescent and incandescent lights.
Blue light has been linked to reduced melatonin as well as increased alertness. Not only does it keep you from getting sleepy, it makes you more stimulated.
I would personally like to recommend f.lux to you. It is a free app that helps fight the harmful effects of blue lights by making colours warmer and more natural, acting as a blue light filter. I have been using it for at least four years and have noticed a considerable improvement.
Personally, it helps me begin to feel tired, as before with the overstimulation, I could keep working very late into the night. Does this sounds familiar to any of you?
There are many similar applications available, and with the latest versions of iOS it is a pre-installed setting that you can activate through the display settings.
It may look a bit weird at first, as your screen will be more orange. The warmer colours aren't great for colour related work, such as colour correcting or video editing. But it is easy to temporarily disable it when you need to.
You can find out more about f.lux here: https://justgetflux.com
I really hope you enjoyed reading this, any questions or comments, please write them below.
With love Lisa Marie ❤️
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My phone has a setting called "Bed time mode" and it turns the screens to low light and a grayscale color and you can set it to turn on automatically at a specified hour and off in the morning. I also have an app on my PC that after 6-7 pm starts turning the colors to something more mellow or orange-ish as you said it above. It can be really helpful if you usually get tired eyes from standing too much in front of the screen.
Your recommendations are really useful and more people should try this.
Voted on ListNerds!
Hi @drlobes Sorry in the delay to reply, I have been moving via 2 plane journeys. Just catching up now.
Yes that is good, it really does make a difference to us.
Thank you for reading my post.
It's totally understandable, important things have to come first and a late reply is ALWAYS better than no reply! 😁 Thank You!
Another awesome post @lisamariesworld.
@beststart glad you enjoyed it 😀
Thank you for sharing your tips on improving sleep. It's important to get quality sleep each night. I also turn my phone on airplane mode and put it away from the bed :)
😅 I feel you are pointing a finger at me to just stop. Honestly, I have working towards avoiding using my phone at night and I have made big progress. The next I want to do is stop using my phone to check the time at night because sometimes I get enticed with notifications I see on my screen and before I know, I am on the phone for an hour or more. These are useful tips you have shared with us and your post has encouraged me to do more. Thank you 🥰. Much love ❤️
Hey @esther-emmanuel sorry in the delay to reply, I have been moving via 2 plane journeys. Just catching up now.
The checking the phone at nighttime is such a huge problem for many. This is why I mentioned it, to make people 'think', as it really isn't good for us. It may have become very normal, but definitely not good for our health.
Thank you for reading, glad you enjoyed it.
Awesome tips - thank you. Sleep is so restorative - I can't do without enough of it! 😁
Glad you liked the post :-)
Great post! I notice that I'm very sensitive to the blue light. And nowadays almost all appliances have blue light. I just installed an aircon unit in my bedroom. I put it on an hour before I go to bed and turn it off when I go to sleep. But the power lights are blue. I use a towel to cover the lights because they really disturb me.
Thank you for your reply, yes absolutely agree so many things are blue light now and it's so disrupting for us.